October 22, 2012

Studio Lighting 4: Dramatic Lighting Techniques

Some photographers will end up using a dozen or more separate lights in completely unorthodox ways to produce the most exciting and dramatic portraits. The fourth class in our complete studio lighting course will get you thinking entirely outside the box of minimalist lighting and building incredibly complex lighting recipes you never thought of.

The fourth class in our lighting program breaks out of the traditional minimalist box to make use of numerous lights for modern and dramatic portrait lighting styles. We’ll employ low-key lighting for dark and moody effects as well as high-key lighting for bright, exciting styles. We’ll make extensive use of color gels, grids, snoots, and anything else we have laying around the studio to create some rather extreme looking results.

The lab session provides a live shooting environment for students to practice what they’ve learned so far. Students will be presented with a number of example images and asked to determine what lights and modifiers were used. Students will then work together to recreate similar images with live models while the instructor provides guidance.